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BMA: 'Shameful' Budget does nothing for NHS shortfall

Calling today's budget presented by the Chancellor 'shameful' the BMA has condemned it for doing nothing to address the NHS funding shortfall.

Responding to the Budget today Dr Mark Porter, Chair of BMA Council says

“Despite claiming the economy is on the up, today's budget does nothing to address the crippling funding shortfall in the NHS.

"While the Government claims the NHS budget is protected, in reality it's suffered £20bn of cuts, billions of which have come from a sustained attack on staff pay.

"If growth forecasts are rising it’s even more shameful that the Government won’t even agree to a 1 per cent uplift, as recommended by an independent pay review body, for all front-line NHS staff.

"Doctors and other staff face increasingly challenging, high pressured and stressful work environments. Cuts to budgets and rising workloads are leading to a recruitment and retention crisis in many parts of the NHS, and we're already seeing the effect of this on emergency medicine. The announcement by the Chancellor to continue with pay restraint and more public sector cuts, if re-elected in the next parliament, will only compound this.

"If, as the Chancellor has said, growth is higher than expected then the Government needs to consider additional funding for the NHS. Without the investment needed to meet rising patient demand and put the NHS on a sustainable financial footing the Government need to face up to the reality that patient care, and indeed the very future of the NHS, will be at risk."

“The Government is giving with one hand and taking with another, with a step forward on measures to reduce smoking but backward on tackling alcohol related harm.

“The announcement to extend the tobacco escalator is an important and welcome one. It will reduce the affordability of cigarettes, which is key to deterring children from starting to smoke. With half of smokers dying from a smoking related disease anything that makes it less attractive is a step in the right direction.

"Scrapping the alcohol escalator and reducing beer duty, coupled with the Government's U-turn on plans to introduce a minimum unit price, shows the Government has abandoned any serious efforts to tackle alcohol related harm.

"With the costs of alcohol related harm estimated at £20bn in England alone, of which £2bn is on healthcare, there is a clear economic as well as a public health case for why urgent action is needed.

"The BMA will continue to call on the Government to introduce a minimum unit price. We know that minimum pricing reduces alcohol related harm amongst the heaviest drinkers while leaving responsible drinkers largely unaffected. This is because virtually all pub drinks, as well as the majority of shop-bought beers, wines and spirits would not be affected by a proposed 50p threshold.”

I left school at 15 in the 1960s without qualifications. My last school report said they could 'see no reason why public money should be wasted on the attempted education of this boy'. I grew up in a one-parent family on a council estate. I am now an academic, medical ethicist, author, writer and singer, composer and arranger, and lead singer with the Oxford Trobadors. I am a former Chair of a local government standards committee, I have a passion for ethics in public life and particularly governance.
I have served on NHS research ethics committees and as an ethics advisor on biomedical matters and tutor in medical ethics. I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, Royal Society of Medicine and the Higher Education Academy.
I am News Editor for Voices from Oxford and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at University College London and Honorary Professor of Medical Ethics at ASRAM Medical College, Eluru, India.
I appeared on The Stephen Nolan show (Radio NI), Woman's Hour (BBC Radio 4), Nightwaves (BBC Radio 3) and various TV programs including 21st Century Girl's Guide to Sex and The Unofficial World Record of Sex. I am author of It Wasn't Always Late Summer.